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Posts: 1
| Curious what tips, tricks and techniques yall might have for fishing pressured/hammered fish? With the growth of the sport, a lot of fish are getting so much more pressure than they did just 5 years ago. I am sure this has been said forever - I hear it from the old timers about fish, deer etc... This species has a long life span and luckily, a high percentage get released. Combine that with the fact these fish are extremely intelligent and I think that evolving techniques and doing something just a little different is now critically important. Just curious what others think and others might be doing to adapt the way we fish for them...
Edited by lostnwilderness 4/5/2019 4:23 PM
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | 'the fact these fish are extremely intelligent '
Lose that concept out of the gate, and do something different than everyone else. Most important is make sure one is fishing where the fish are and don't expect populations to remain as they were. Look over what's been going on there, too.. |
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Posts: 183
| Fish at night. |
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Posts: 112
| Yes, definitely fish at night, including night trolling. During the day, use unusual lures. Or unusual speeds for casting and trolling. And if you move a fish during the day and it doesn't seem super aggressive, don't keep throwing at it over and over (burns the fish out for longer, IMO especially if they're pressured). Mark/remember the spot, leave, and come back in a few hours, particularly at sunset.
Edited by joh10891 4/5/2019 5:49 PM
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Posts: 8782
| Get 'em to eat the first time, and you won't have to worry about going back.
That said, I don't really buy into the pressured fish are harder to catch" thing. They may be more conditioned to seeing lures around, but when they want to eat there's not much you can do to stop them. I raised a 54"er up on Eagle some years back on one of those spot-on-the-spot spots. 13 different times over the course of a several days... Pressured water, famous spot, late in the season, big old fish. If they could learn that lures aren't food I never would have seen the fish once, much less 13 times. A week after I left, a guy I know got a 54"er in that exact same spot. No way to know if it was the same fish, but that #*^@ muskie didn't move 2 feet from that rock the whole week I was there. As a kid, I caught several fish that I had been chasing basically for the whole summer. They sure didn't learn. I had another fish that I caught on the same lure on the same spot, two Saturdays in a row.
They're #*^@ dumb, IMO.
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Posts: 1220
| My impression of LOTW today is that it is a lot like (insert your lake)Vilas County twenty years ago. You will see fish you need to return to at dark, or at a moon event or weather event. Lazy follows are the norm, they have been there, seen that, have the tee shirt. I’m guessing Canada is 10-12 hours per fish, down here more like 35-40 hours per musky. I suggest rigging for Smallies, you’re probably going to get just as many musky and have a better day of it! |
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Posts: 386
| Muskies are not extremely intelligent but they do get accustomed to the same presentations if that's all they see. I don't give a fish too much credit that eats bucktails, topwaters, pine cones and hot dogs that don't resemble anything similar to actual forage. That being said, it's a different ballgame now than 10 years ago. I've always fished after dark but I find myself throwing SLOW presentations if I have a fish located. If I dont, I rarely throw double 8,9 or 10's after dark anymore and usually throw spinnerbaits or high riding crankbaits. I fish a lot mid week and avoid high pressures lakes on weekends. I also troll a lot more during the summer and after dark now. You can cover 3x the water and find fish that actually want to eat. Those are just a few things I do.
Edited by Pat Hoolihan 4/5/2019 10:01 PM
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Posts: 760
| Good ideas so far, a few extra. If you don't like fishing in the rain, get used to it. Also, try downsizing. I can assure you, Mepps musky and Giant killers still catch fish. Plus you can really burn those in. Also try a 1/2 oz. rattle trap. If everyone else is fishing the weedbeds, try a shoreline with fallen trees or docks. Pay close attention to water temperature, I like 65-75 degrees. And like junkman said, go bass fishing. Kdawg |
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Posts: 20219
Location: oswego, il | Being different is key. Throw agressive presentations when the water is above 55 degrees. |
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Posts: 1209
| Grab baits that worked ten years ago that no one talks about or uses anymore. Fish at night. Fish during the week. Speed. Downsizing |
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Location: Contrarian Island | I would say Madison fish are some of the most pressured fish anywhere....biggest thing is timing... be on the spot when they decide to bite... having used an underwater camera the last ~10 yrs in the fall, it is absolutely unbelievable how many muskies are below the boat at times and they can have a fleet of suckers to choose from and they don't bite... pressured fish still eat a lot I do think overall the windows are shorter so simply being on fish when they decide to bite is key. |
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| if you get that trick from that post it will not be a really good trick for long because if it work it will quickly become what musky seen the most lol. imho staying away from bulldawgs and cowgirl is a good start. |
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Posts: 770
Location: Ames, Iowa | I find that a lot of guys head for the dock because their wives told them to be back for dinner. I consider this the best hours, 6-9 pm, when the perch, bass and walleye guys have knocked off and certainly that's true of the boaters and the jetskiers. We do two meals per day and like to do dinner early and be ready to hit the water around 6 pm. That last hour of light is the magic hour, and usually very quiet on my lake. |
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Posts: 393
| Thumbs up and totally agree on fishing early evening and night hours on pressured lakes! |
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Posts: 101
Location: Niagara on the Lake, ON | came here to type fish different types of baits |
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Posts: 61
Location: Morgantown, WV | Most people fish spots from the same location. Position yourself somewhere else and use different casting angles. |
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Location: 31 | Significantly increasing the speed with aggressive figure 8s has worked really well for us in the past, but almost impossible to do all day.We have also had some success fishing puke slow at times, obviously not a good search tactic though. Probably my favorite dirty water casting tactic is going right into heavy cover instead of just plunking the lure down on the outside edge like everyone else… lots of fun and can be very productive when muskies are shallow.
However, my standard pressured fish trick is simply not fishing there and spending that time exploring… have found some great bites doing that. As a general rule I would rather fish unpressured low density, than high pressured high density most of the time. |
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Posts: 416
Location: MN | IMO, timing is by far the most important factor. I like to think of it on 3 scales:
Seasonal: be fishing during a time of year where fish are biting and/or concentrated on that particular lake
Weekly: be fishing during favorable general trends (stable warm weather, cold fronts, full/new moon, etc)
Daily: be fishing when windows are likely to open (weather changes, sunrise/set, moon events, peak temp, after dark, etc.)
Place as many of your bets as you can when multiple factors stack up. I'd much rather have a 4 hour outing during good conditions than 20 hours randomly distributed. If you are forced to fish a particular day, maybe you have to fix it in advance, you can still choose a lake that is "going" that time of year generally, and aim for full or new moon.
I generally think going for a different or strange presentation is mostly counterproductive. Windows are shorter, and fish generally don't respond outside of windows. Cycling through odd baits hoping to convince an inactive fish to bite only increases the chance you have a poorly hooking or ineffective bait on when the window opens and you're in front of fish. Muskies like big blades, rubber, and topwaters. I'd rather cycle through a few known productive baits and wait for a window. That being said, if you have 3 guys in the boat, I think it makes a lot of sense to have the 3rd guy mix it up until you have action. Also, sometimes certain baits can get hot - keep an ear open for any tips.
Networking can be very helpful when you don't get much feedback from fish. Exchange info with friends who also fish the lake - you don't have to give away spots, just let each other know when you are having action and on what. If you're out at the same time, it's like having that many more lines in the boat. Off the water you can talk strategy and compare experiences and both grow your understanding. |
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Posts: 427
| sworrall - 4/5/2019 4:47 PM
'the fact these fish are extremely intelligent '
Lose that concept out of the gate, and do something different than everyone else. Most important is make sure one is fishing where the fish are and don't expect populations to remain as they were. Look over what's been going on there, too.. I agree. I've hooked the same fish once on 3 consecutive cast. The fish jumped the first to times and threw the bait. On the third cast it followed the same bait and hit on the 8. That fish was no youngster it was a mid 40s and had to have seen many baits. On other occasions I've caught the same 40 something fish from the same spot on the same bait on consecutive days. I've also caught fish with other baits still hanging from their mouths. Conditioned maybe. Intelligent I doubt it. Unpredictable defiantly. |
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Posts: 571
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMLZxNuPIzQ |
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Posts: 267
| Get on a piece of structure, then cast out the other side of the boat.
Another one is grinding rocks with a floating crankbait, then rip it up near the boat. Pause it and then go into the 8. Sometimes they'll come up and smash at the pause. |
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Posts: 20219
Location: oswego, il | If you get weeds on the bait and it's fouled, give it a couple hard snaps to get as much off as you can then Mach speed back to the boat. It matters not the kind of bait I have had fish eat a glider this way with no action at all. |
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